New guide promotes college and industry collaboration

IBEC and the universities will this morning launch a guide to help foster research collaboration between industry and third-level institutions. It details how to set up joint research projects and how to handle questions over who owns the resultant intellectual property.

The document was prepared under the auspices of IBEC and the Committee of Heads of Irish Universities by a working group which included Forfas, the Irish Research Development Group, which represents companies involved in research, and university representatives.

Irish companies spend about £7 million a year on collaborative studies with the third-level but this is considered much too low and compares poorly with figures in other countries. The document's authors are understood to expect this figure to double or triple following its release.

The idea for the document, "Collaboration between Industry and Third-Level Institutions, a Guide for Industry", arose while the development group was preparing a strategy for increasing the volume of in-company research here. It was decided that a "how to" guide would encourage both large and small companies to start research collaborations by taking the uncertainty out of making an approach to a university.

The document is divided into five parts. It includes an introduction for companies new to third-level research collaboration, de tails of the issues to be considered when setting up a partnership and the names and telephone numbers of university contacts. It also describes how to find outside financial support for such a venture.

A section is given over to discussing issues surrounding intellectual property rights and establishing how the research partners would share in any commercially important discoveries. The document includes a number of case studies which give examples of successful collaborations.